New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi is unlikely to be announced as Congress’s prime ministerial candidate on January 17 or any time soon. The big, immediate change in Congress is not Rahul’s elevation but his sister, Priyanka Gandhi, taking a far larger and critical role in the party, including greater involvement in national electoral planning. But she will not take a formal post in the party even as her political work extends beyond helping her brother and mother manage their constituencies.
There’s also no likely change in Rahul and Sonia Gandhi’s personal Lok Sabha battle plans. They will stand, respectively, from Amethi and Rae Bareli, the two traditional Nehru-Gandhi constituencies in UP. Following Aam Aadmi Party’s Kumar Vishwas’ aggressive foray in Amethi, there had been reports that Rahul Gandhi may look for a second constituency. But the Gandhi scion is likely to stick to his traditional seat.
Key Congress leaders at senior and critical strategy-making positions in the party told ET, on the condition they not are identified, that “thinking at the highest level” is not in favour of announcing Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate any time soon. If there’s a rethink, these leaders said, it can always be “done later”. They also said Priyanka Gandhi playing a larger strategic and planning role is a key part of Congress’ 2014 strategy. Her involvement has been going up since the assembly elections, a Congress leader said, and it will go up even more, he added.
A number of senior Congress ministers, P Chidambaram and Manish Tiwari among them, had publicly called for Rahul Gandhi’s elevation. Senior Congress strategists ET spoke to say they expect party rank and file to express a strong demand for Rahul Gandhi’s elevation. There may be some “commotion and drama on January 17”, a senior functionary said. But he added, there is unlikely to be any significant announcement.
Bureau Report
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